brazil's dance with the the show may be over but the conversation continues on our website aljazeera.com/considerthis. >> look out am dan and ebay, alibabi is coming for pup i'll tell but a company that most americans have never heard of could one day dominate e commerce across the globe. also middle class families who live in fear. you'll meet a hard-working husband and wife who struggle to keep their head above water, and i'll help them find solutions. dump your electric company and buy a battery.

"real money with ali velshi." >> this is real money. this is the most important part of the show. tell me what is on your mind by tweet ing. this is a sorry about alibabi. this is not a story from the arabian nights. i'm talking about chinese behemoth alibabi.com. if you don't know what it is, you will soon. it's bigger than amazon. it's bigger than facebook. it dominates china, investors expect with this ipo alibabi will set its sights on global domination. the company is expected to raise as much as $20 billion in a stock offering later in year. if true that a make alba pa's

ipo the biggest in u.s. history. you'll have to wait to see if that comes true. the question for investors is it worth it? last year there was a quarter of a trillion dollars in business done on alibabi's three main sites. and that, by the way, is a 62% jump from the previous year. during that time the sites transacted with 231 million active users. alibabi businesses have been described as a combination of ebay, pay pal and amazon on steroids dominating 80% of china's online retail marketplace. now, yahoo stands to make a killing off this deal. it had the foresight to buy a big stake in alibabi for just $1 billion back in 2005. yahoo stake has been whittled down over the years to a little more than the one-fifth of alibabi, and it's obligated to unload more stock in this offering, but based on current estimates of how much alibabi will be bother, yahoo stake

could end up being worth $10 billion or more making alibabi one big thing going yahoo's way right now. live to what yahoo ceo melissa mayor talking about the windfall everyone thinks i can't had yahoo will get. >> we returned some of the proceeds to shareholders, but we did make some smart investments in the company in terms of building up talent, building up technology, and platforms like tumblr, i can point to what we've done historically and point to the fact that we know that this is of critical importance to our investors. >> that sounds like a perfectly scripted answer. her lawyer should be proud. alibabi would be nowhere without its founder jack ma. mary snow has his story.

>> reporter: he may seem an unlikely business tycoon. jack ma, a former english teacher who describes himself as not a tech guy skyrocketed to rock star status as founder of e commerce giant alibabi. he even dresses like a rock star. he started the company with friends in his apartment in 1999, scraping together $60,000. >> we will make it because we are young, and we never ever give up. [♪ music ] >> reporter: ma's perseverance is a trademark. his personal set backs are legendary. being rejected ten times by harvard is one of them. when he faced doubts about alibabi taking on ebay he said if eabout a is a shark in the

ocean we're the crocodile of the gan yanzte river. >> really, it takes a special kind of person and personality not only to build this company but to have the long-term vision and financial patience to build the company like alibabi over many, many years. >> reporter: in china ma holds rank with the likes of steve jobs and bill gates. his personal fortune is estimated to be $8.4 billion. at 49 jack ma is no longer alibabi 's ceo. he retired last year but remains the executive chairman and holds a stake in the company. now he's setting his sights on social challenges. >> meanwhile the company that jack ma started is focusing on

growth. he spent $3.5 million on acquisitions mostly on a mapping company, but it's expansion outside of china that is holding the speculations. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> there are a lot of things about this that is interesting. what stands out to you? >> what stands out the most people are expecting an outline of maybe their global ambitions that is not in this perspetus. it is china focused. why not continue to concentrate on that? except alibabi has been spending like crazy outside of china, and you know, spending heavily in the u.s. so what's going on there? they certainly didn't tell us. >> the one neat thing for

american investors is that you love the chinese market. you think there is a lot of growth, and you want a direct piece of action this is a way to get it because you're investing with a company that interacts with the chinese every day. what is the other side of that? are things going to change for us in the way we do business on the internet because it becomes a public company? >> that depends on alibabi, and right now it looks like it will invest heavily in china. it's growth is dependent on its investments going up. that depends on if there is a housing crash. what's mainly talked about is ex-passage in southeast asia and the u.s. in southeast asia late last year

it launched it's ebay in singapore. it launched its southeast asia hub. it's serious about this. if go on the site you can find any language you want. it's all there. that is a lot of expensive language that they're doing, and they're making it accessible to the growing middle class in southeast asia. >> they're also trying to list the stock in hong kong, and the rules there, the hong kong regulators did not want to let them do that because they wanted to do this that did not meet their standards. do we read into that that our standards are lower for a company that is investing? do we need to worry about that? >> yes, we do have lower standards. hong kong has higher standards. that we can take away from this. >> you mentioned taubao.

one of the challenges that this company deals with, with the trade that was done on its website, a lot of counter get in counterfeit in china. is that a threat to its business? >> that depends on how much it spooks investors. on the ebay, they have a whole section on fraud. i think its larger in china, but that's something that they've at least shown that they're actively trying to address. it's a big problem. >> that's not just alibaba's problem. that's an entire economy problem. thanks for joining us. here is a sign of china's power. chinese business occupy the top three spots on forbes' latest ranking on the world's latest

public companies. the top four spots on the glob global 2000 are all banks. the state controlled industrial of china. ibcb as it's known. construction bank and agriculture bank of china moved up to third space. jp morgan chase fell a spot while warren buffet's company ranked fifth. apple again ranked first in terms of stock market value. about $500 billion at last count. when janet yellen is worried about us, it's time for us to worry, too. i'll tell you one thing that the federal chair just said she's worried about america's economy. plus the small california city is doing that congress probably won't do to put money in your paycheck. that story continues, keep it right here.

>> award winning producer and director joe berlinger exposes the truth. >> our current system has gone awry... >> a justice system rum by human beings, can run off the rails. >> sometimes the system doesn't serve and protect, and the innocent pay the price. what goes wrong? >> it's a nightmarish alternative reality, sometimes you can't win... >> an original investigative series. when justice is not for all... ♪ what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together reliably fast internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system. only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before.

>> you followed their journey across the border >> it was heart wrenching... >> now see how it changed the lives of the people involved. >> i didn't go back to the person that i was before i left... >> an emotional borderland reunion >> this trip was personal to me... this is real... >> long held beliefs >>...illegal in mexico too.. >> learn the language! come here...

>>...most ridiculous thing i've heard in my life >> tested by hard lived truths... >> these migrants are being exploited >> beyond borderland... only on al jazeera america >> all we heard about last winter was how harsh the winter was. but now that winter is, we hope, behind us, the weather is no longer an excuse. janet yellen gave a mostly positive outlook for the u.s. economy to congress' joint economic committee. but she said it still needs help. she said the job market is far from where it needs to be. she worries abt the housing market remaining weak, and much of that with fewer young people looking to buy homes. >> we have seen very slow household formation. many yng people who are living with their parents

, it's difficult for students who have heavy student debt to qualify for mortgages. >> we talked about that a great deal. she expects the economy to grow and expand at a faster rate and she expects interest rates to remain low for a long time. we do have low inflation, low interest rates and a job market that is finally showing signs of real life but wages aren't going anywhere. in addition to housing that's another concern for the economy. i want to know where do we go from here? what sense do we make from that. from the royal bank of scotland, thank you for being here. >> thanks, ali. thanks for having me. >> as time goes by after you have a paul volker and greenspan, i don't know if

they're getting older or becoming more clearer. >> they're speaking more slowly. >> what encouraged you, what disappointed you. >> in truth they are trying to intentionally to be more transparent. chair yellen has been overseeing even when she was vice chair. the message was the same. they're trying to thread the needle. they want to talk up the economy. they want to say things are good. that's why they're able to cut back on some stimulus. they're winding down this asset purchase program. at the same time they don't want to be so confident that it speaks the market in thinking that the fed may soon be raising interest rates. as you noted i thought the caution about housing was interesting. the fact that the fed is watching that closely, and also this talk about financial stability. the fed is also watching financial markets and being wear

waryof financial money may be ld to go a bubble. they're also very watchful of that. >> smart people ask they these days, are you worried about the stock market? do you think it's in a bubble? do you think it will go down. i'm sure they ask you that, too. what do you say? >> from my standpoint valuations are appropriate. we've got great corporate balance sheets and good earnings, certainly that's what janet yellen said the fed is seeing. equity valuations look to be in line with historical norms. that's a sign that as of yet they are not worried that the equity market is overvalued, that it's all this easy money that is pushing stocks higher and nothing fundamentally supporting it. we don't think so, and neither does the fed. >> there is talk that we'll look back at the first quarter of this year that weather froze so much that we had negative growth.

i don't know if you share that view, but a lot of smart economists think we did not grow much in that first quarter. when that number comes out should we be worried? >> we do think that first quarter is going to be revised down to negative territory, a maybe half a percent. but the good news we're seeing signs of the thaw. we had a job gain of 288,000. i think they'll average the first and second quarter. we're looking at growth in the second quarter of 3.5%. when you average it, it's shy of 2%. >> let's look at jobs. we all thought. a lot of economists said you need 150 to 200,000 jobs a month. many think if you average 150,000 a month, you're doing okay. but at 2el 8,000, lots of jobs but not much wage growth. >> it's absolutely true that you

don't need as many jobs now to get the unemployment rate down as historically. that's why growing 200,000 a month on average and you're seeing the unemployment rate come down, but by historical standards that's still subdued, sub-par. normally you would be looking at job growth of 250, 300,000, that's what you need to get wages growing. we still have slack in the labor market, that's why wages are not turning up. >> when it's slack that means there is someone available to get your job and you get that wage increase. michelle, chief economist at the royal bank of scotland. the danger of america's booming business of moving oil by train cars through local communities. today transportation secretary anthony fox told lawmakers on capitol hill that the standard tank cars that hold millions of

barrels of cru crude oil are not fit to transport oil. here in the united states and in canada . federal regulators are also issuing a safety alert to push oil by rail companies to retire the tank cars or reinforce them with more melt. we will continue to watch this story for you. okay, she's the mayor in the middle with workers and small businesses on either side. coming up i'm talking about a big catalyst in california's minimum wage debate . plus middle class families living paycheck to paycheck. >> you keep getting unexpected hits from all different angles of things you're not prepared for.

>> my look at america's middle class continues, we look at a husband and wife's balancing act and the toll its taking on their relationship. i'm not just talking about it. we have more right here. >> on the next talk to al jazeera lawyer david boies gives surprising insight intos his most historic case bush vs. gore and tells of his relentless fight for civil rights >> this is the defining issue today... >> talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america

>> how old are you? >> 9 >> child labor in america >> in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. you don't see any of that in agriculture >> low cost food >> how many of you get up at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning to

go out to the fields? >> who's paying the price? fault lines... al jazeera america's hard hitting... ground breaking... truth seeking... >> they don't wanna show what's really going on... >> award winning, investigative, documentary series. children at work only on al jazeera america >> a year ago you probably hadn't heard of richmond, california, the area ravaged by the housing crash, but it's been making waves with it's chairmaning the ship. last year it was poised to become the first american city to buy distressed mortgages through emman domain. that's the law that allows the government to seize private government for public good. and they would pudge minimum wage to $12.30 by 2017. the mayor it's been busting

local wages, mayor mclachlin, thank you for being with us. >> thank you, glad to be here. >> you're walking a tightrope between a place that has to survive because businesses do business in your town, but at the same time is looking to protect the interests of the working people, the middle class people, the low-income people in your community. that is a tough balance to find. how do you feel you're doing in this? >> i think we're doing a great job. i mean, we want businesses. we appreciate our businesses. we want more of it, we also want businesses to do the right thing for their workers. in richmond we have nearly 18% of our families living under the poverty level. 2,000 to 4,000 low-minimum wage jobs exist in our city, and we think it's to our benefit to the benefit of our community, to the benefit of our local economy to raise the minimum wage because

then you have people with more money in their pockets spending money in our local economy, and actually revitalizing our economy. so it's to the benefit of businesses and certainly to the benefit of working families who work so hard now and half the time by even working full time can't even make ends meet. >> later on in the show we're going to talk to one of those families. where it's typical they have two incomes and have difficulty. let me show my viewers what your council is proposing. there are a couple of exemptions. workers under the age of 18. workers at businesses with fewer than ten employees, and workers who are regularly tipped. a study of 23 of 53 local businesses said that they would comply with the law without exploring options like reducing their workforce, cutting hours or moving to a nearby city which means 30 business it's out of 53

were going to do one of those things. i guess i'm asking you at what point are you worried that you're doing the right thing as far as you're concerned but businesses may say this can't be my problem. i'm going to another town. >> we did make some amendments last night. the council majority was unwilling to move forward the ordinance as we had put it forward, some of us on the council. the exemption nor youth is something that i did not support. i made a motion not to include that. i think youth should get a minimum wage increase as well. the majority of the council did not go along with that, and also i believe tipped workers should get an increase in the minimum wage, but the majority did not go along with that. i did support the amended ordinance knowing that we can change it going forward to strengthen it to include these exemptions at some point when we get a different council, when we have a council that understands

that we need to strengthen it even further. all the studies that i have read stated clearly that businesses benefit from the increased wages. we did it in a phased way so over the next three years it will go up to $12.30. small businesses can adjust. we don't feel that it's going to harm the small business community or certainly the large business community is not even objecting to this. to some extent. we try to make this very, very fair to businesses. so i think there is a little bit of misinformation, some studies that didn't have really good data were presented, but by far and wide the majority of the studies say that a phased-in minimum wage increase does not cause job loss. >> but i will say, mayor, this particular study i'm citing i

believe was done, presented by council by the city staff. this was a survey set up. >> right, i think what they did, they held a community meeting or rather a business community meeting, and i think that they discussed is various other studies in the a meeting. only 60 businesses responded. >> that's not a robust sample. >> mayor. thank you for being with us. we hope to continue this conversation with you through the course of the year. >> thank you for having yes. >> mayor gayle mclaughlin of richmond, california. the pot is on the brink of boiling over. >> with the financial stress, these days i say to myself, you know what, i'm out of here.

i just--i can't take it no more. why bother? >> reporter: she's like a lot of you out there, working hard and feeling like you're going nowhere fast. we'll take a look at her challenges and some solutions on my focus of middle class. today electric cars. tomorrow, electric houses? ambitious plans for batteries. keep it here. >> on techknow... >> we're heading towards the glaciers >> a global warning >> is there an environmental urgency? >> that is closer than you think... >> even a modest rise, have dramatic impacts on humankind. >> how is it changing the way you live today? techknow... every saturday, go where science meets humanity... >> this is some of the best driving i've ever done... even though i can't see. >> techknow... >> we're here in the vortex... only on al jazeera america

>> more than 25 million middle classme class americans are living paycheck to paycheck. we're tracking three families who personify that sobering statistic. tonight we're focusing on the sabinos who feel like they're one step away from economic disaster. >> the car is not turning over. i don't believe this. i'm going to scream in two seconds. >> reporter: diane and phil sabino live in constant state of financial fear. >> if something is going to

happen, how are we going to pay that. >> the potential setback is averted when the car starts, but they have good reason to be on edge. >> we get hits from all different angles of things you're not prepared for. >> diane's hours at the school cafeteria were cut back. >> i'm out $80 per paycheck, so that hurts. >> reporter: diane also has a job at the ymca. phil works the overnight shift at the ups office. together they make $95,000 a year. but what the sabinos barely cover their expenses. their annual property taxes have more than doubled to $12,000 since think bought their home in 1998. [♪ music ] then there is the cost of raising two kids. 14-year-old anthony and 21-year-old laura, who lives at home. they cut dangerous corners doing without crucial repairs to their home or car. >> i was on my way going to work.

it was approximately 1:00 in the morning on the parkway. i just putted all of the way to work. it must have stalled seven times. finally it died. the engine was gone. that's it. i had to junk it. >> reporter: there was another scare when a stranger knocked on their door. they said ma'am, you you need to pay the water bill. you need to may $200. if you don't pay it, we'll shut it off in a half hour. i thought, great. now i'm shaking. the so the cable bill was pushed back a couple of weeks. >> reporter: according to a survey, 76% of americans live paycheck to paycheck with no emergency savings. >> it will get done. >> reporter: ongoing money woes is causing serious problems for this husband and wife. financial strain is cited by

psychologists as one of the key reasons couples break up. they do see a marriage counselor but haven't gone because of the $20 copay. >> with the financial stress i say to myself, you know, what i'm out. i'm out of here. i just--i can't take it no more. like, why bother? >> reporter: for phil life is an unrelenting economic balancing act. diane understands the need for sacrifice but she believes justice a momentary release from their economic straight jacket would help ease the constant pressure. >> i've been wanting to see the lyon king on broadway for years now. and i say to him, can't we just go? but then he says no, and then we get resentment. >> i always mean to get the tickets, but then i have a set back here or there, and then i think, i can't do it. >> the tickets would be together, $200. >> no, it's more than that. >> well, $225, $250. i don't need to be up front.

i just need to be in the room. >> it's more than $300. >> reporter: when they married nearly 25 years ago they never imagined their life would be such a daily struggle. >> when you're younger you're not going to think you're going to grow up into a bad time. but we're in a bad time. don't you agree? >> very bad time. >> see, we agreed on that. [ laughing ] >> reporter: i think there is a lot this they will agree on. diane and phil join me now along with psychologist and financial adviser ryan mack. two guys i trust who are here to give the advice who achieve financial goals and peace of mind along the way. thank you for being here. diane and phil, you've been very forthcoming with us. we appreciate that because we think your story is the story of many, many americans. but this does stress you out. that stress has got to take its toll on you and your relationship. jeff, that is about the most common thing in the world. >> that's what we say, no money, no honey.

it's a real issue for couples throughout the united states because a lot of people suffering financially, but i see it's been a problem for these two lovely people. what i really like is at the end of the piece where you say, honey, we agreed on something. part of what i'm seeing here is that you can agree on a lot. you use humor in a very good way. and the fact is even though you stopped the marriage counseling, you do need to continue talking, and you need to up that $20 and do that coy pa copay. don't be penny-wise and pound foolish. >> you pep people invest their money and be prosperous, but you help with basic things like budgeting. look at that pie, housing is 54%, something a financial planner like you would say that's too high.

but we see many people top out. >> this is going forward. so looking at this budget. one of the things that she said was entertainment. i think its important to strife for happiness. if it costs $300 to go to the lyon king. and your entertainment budget was $150 a month. treat that as two months of entertainment. put that away this month. give her the headline and figure it out next month and in june they takes that and buys the tickets for herself. a couple of things like the utilities. the different food, $900. can you live off $150 a week. you might have to figure out with coupons. a lot of people doing aggressive couponing, sue what he can do to get that down. debt, $225. have you figured out ways to decre decrease your interest. >> what kind of debt is that? >> we have an thes

anesthesia bill, but i'm paying it, and i plan to make a settlement when i get close to paying that off. i've been trying to get it down to $900. >> how do you do that? how are you able to get that dollar amount down? are you talking to the people that you owe? are you negotiating? >> i'm negotiating. absolutely negotiating. >> that's a very positive thing because i often tell couples don't be afraid of the people you owe money. those people want to you pay. they don't want you to go into debt or foreclosure. they want you to be able to work with them. so be very aggressive in calling them. fear is a reel big thing here. not just for you, but for me, ryan, we deal with that when it comes to money, but after a while you have to get a thicker skin on this because you have to play the game. and it is a game. you know, the two of you--

>> let me say this quickly. the two of you i know having marital issues, being that team when i hear ryan saying, a, b, c, d, if you can do this together, two heads are better than one. not only does it help you financially, but emotionally it begins to strengthen the marriage. >> when you're talking about investing, investing in the market a lot of it has to do with or shouldn't del with emotion. when you're investing with emotion that's the wrong thing. the same with budgeting. it's--i sense a lot of emotion when you're talking about it when you're coming together and talking about your individual goals, your couple goals, what is your system? a very common thing. husband, i want "x." husband says we can't afford "x." both of them are answered with emotion. but if you bring your budget out, and it's an organized system. >> take the cut of this in this area to achieve that.

i kind of like the fact that diane got that. she wants something. the worse is when you don't want anything. >> right. >> that means there is no problem to solve. what do you want to know from them. what >> how can i reduce my property taxes. $12,000, and it keeps going up. in other words when you're planning on your taxes are going to be for the year, it keeps going up and up. school taxes are $8,000. >> you're more than $12,000 a year. $1,000 a month. >> it went up again. >> i don't want to step on your toes. you can continue grieving this, and he'll tell you how to do it. let me give you the emotional part of this. the psychology of this. the fact that you're grieving this is excellent. you're in the game. now you're not being the victim. now you're being an equal

player, and you have to put that emotion aside. listen, i really need to grieve this, and this isn't fair. they don't care about that. you have to show them why this is something that needs have you done. >> have you taken pictures of that hole in the ceiling. listen, you talk about the property value being worth this month. look at the holes, this is the problems that we're having. don't wait for that reduction of tax value. >> be aggressive. >> one of the things that i like is fighting for the free. you can go down and set up by free. it's set up by bloomberg and there are resources where individuals can talk about free services that help you get your debt together. get your credit together, and get a plan moving together. all you have to pay is just time. again, i can't emphasize this enough. sitting down and making sure that you have that system that is in place. if there is a system in place

there is less stress. because you know this is mutually agreed upon system . your older daughter, you felt that she should pay a certain debt of the household, what system do you have in place? i'm not saying what your daughter should or should not pay, but whatever you mutually agree upon, sit down and figure out what is best for you two and then go on with that plan moving forward. >> now we're getting into touchy territory. what do you do with kids. what happens when the resource that is last left that gets shut off is your kids? >> here's the thing, with your daughter you're feeling that perhaps she shouldn't contribute because you don't want her to take on too much debt. >> when you get older that's your whole life. >> right. >> but that's--you know, i don't want no normaliz normalize--i dt to normalize this, but from the psychological point of view

taking on debt is something that matures you and let's you know that you're part of society because you're paying in. but most importantly for you and i know, i know how you feel about this, but your husband is right on this. at least he's right once in a while. here's the deal. if she gives something towards the house, it may not make a big difference in what's going on financially, but at least now she is a working unit, part of the working unit. it's not just you two who can do it. it has to be you, anthony, your daughter, everyone needs to work together and bringing down the bills. that's when you're talking about the $900 food. they can work towards that. >> anything that is more important than money is time. >> exactly. >> you all are older than your daughter. you look great, but your daughter is 21. she has a lot of years to incur debt. you have less years to incur debt.

you have to look at your financial health. you have time to make sure to make sure that debt you incur you can pay it down. the more you sustain her lifestyle the less time that you have reach that financial goal. making sure that when you are 65, 70 your debt free and the more you incur doing that now. >> may i ask you something quickly here. fear seems to rule this household. i see the way that you--you respond to things--you go over the top. it was what endeared to your husband, but it's also stressing you down. it's wearing you down. it's wearing down the family. so if nothing else you have to look at how the way you deal with situations impacts people around you because if you freak out, everybody else freaks out. that's number one. number two, quickly. i know your daughter is thinking about--listen. >> that was a look to melt an

iceberg. >> the husband is looking at me saying yes, dr. jeff, tell it how it is because i can't say it right now. i going to home with my wife. but the thing is i know your daughter is thinking maybe she shouldn't go to college because of the money issue. don't let fear--don't let stress stop you from your dreams. this is an investment in your daughter's future. she can invest back in the family. so you don't have to go to the old folks home at 65. you have kids who will take care of you as you have taken care of them. >> that's a great note to leave it on. laura is in the next room and heard everything you said. ryan mack, jeff, always, you make the whole thing seem brighter. thanks for you guys. we're going to stick with you throughout the rest of the year. many believe the road ahead is batteries. how tesla plans to get all charged up for the future.

from the walk man to the iphone. what people at apple should learn from a company like sony. keep it right here.

real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america. >> sharers of the car company tesla are taking a pounding in after hours trading. it earned $0.12 a share last

quarter, but investors clearly wanted more from a company whose stock was trading around $200 a share and is up 34% this year. tes la said it made more than. 7500 cars, beating it's own predictions. and also beat analyst estimate. the man behind is elon musk. he's the chairman of solar city harnessing the power of the sun has become the nation's largest provider of solar systems. he's trying to conquer the heavens by building space ships for the government, but his business plan for selling electric cars has set off a major battle with america's oldest most established business car dealers. >> new car dealerships have a

special place in american culture thanks to huge amounts of advertising. they spent more than $7 billion in local ads in 2012. what you may not realize is that niece roughly 17,000 small businesses are also some of the most successful. >> the best deals in town. >> in 2012 new car dealers took in $680 billion in revenue. all that money buys influence. according to the national institute of money and state politics in the last ten years car dealers contributed more than $100 million to political campaigns. >> car dealers wieldy nor must power among legislators, and they've developed laws which protect their markets and prevent competitive panels of distribution. >> elon musk is learning first hand how car dealers will protect their turf. he wants to sell his cars directly to consumers, by pass

the dealers . that has brought laws in 32 states that bar car manufacturers from selling directly. hawai'i and alaska don't. these laws were enacted after world war ii. cars were becoming popular. automakers were growing powerful in large part because dealers were selling cars so well. dealers worried after investing so much money automakers might abruptly alter franchise deals or under cut them with direct sales so they lobbied state law. >> there are investors who buy millions, tens of millions of dollars of real estate and facilities to market and sell cars. >> reporter: james appleton eposes the business model.

am on it said tesla gives the electric carmaker an unfair advantage over dealers and ultimately hurts consumers. >> in a factory store model there is one factory, one price, no competition, take it or leave it. >> reporter: new car dealerships are fighting to preserve a system that places them in a crucial point in the auto sales food chain. middle man, between factory and consumer. this is an arrangement that gives dealers right to sell services. the national autoible dealer association said the average new car costs upwards of $30,000 but profit margins are slim. dealers make $110 per sale. most of their profit comes from servicing cars. doing oil changes, checkups providing replacement parts,' ranging financing and used car strayed in.

elon musk represent a practical and philosophical change to that channel. no need for oil, spark plug or fuel-filtered changes or tune ups or smog checks. and it's a fill sovereign philosophical challenge because musc writes: >> it's a position that guarantees further conflict for american auto dealers who are prepared to fight today as they did in its past. al jazeera. >> well, elon m usk's vision includes gigga factory. now his goal is to create a factory turning out enough batteries by 2020 to outfit 500,000 electric cars. this is key to meeting the other

big goal, to produce mass market electric cars in three years. tesla has narrowed down the places for factory. and they will be up and running by 2017 but didn't say where. in a cost estimated at $5 billion is it worth it? we turn to a battery expert and ceo of growing energy labs. the san francisco company makes software used in energy storage systems. he joins me now. ryan, good to see you. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for making hey. >> let me tell you my narrative. a lot of people think that the u.s. government backed a? that went out of business, so there is to solar, and car batteries are things that a small segment of society use. but in the last few years alternative energy systems have become much more mainstream than some of us would know about. >> absolutely. and you actually have the lithium ion battery close to you in your laptop or cell phone, so

it's much more prevalent than you think. we need them to move forward. >> what happens changed that has made this phone which worked in--this battery that worked in my phone all this time into a source that we can use not just for cars, but now we're talking about houses. >> yes, the technology has really remained the same for most part of the last ten years. there has been advances on the technology itself, but we've had a lot more financing methods around electric vehicles, rene renewable energy integration. now the pure scale that's coming up is going to enable batteries for businesses and batteries for homes to reach much farther. in 2007 i would say most of the japanese and korean manufacturers saw the renewable coming they decided to triple their battery capacity. now here we are in 2014 they have expanded their capacity,

and now what tesla is saying they want to double that again. we can see a similar line that happened with solar panel manufacturing. there was a point that it was going to take a thousand years to produce at current capacity. then there was a big jump in manufacturing capacity, and we saw the drop in solar panel costs. so what are we going to see when we see a doubling of battery manufacturing capacity. we're going to see lithium ion batteries available for almost every single market application. >> including housing. >> including housing, utilities, and full net energy. >> tell me how realistic, and give me your guess of a time frame of what you just said about solar and lithium ion manufacturing. when might we see battery-powered houses.

>> we're seeing battery-powered houses right now. california, new york, hawai'i are critical places where we're deploying technology for batteries for businesses and homes. but the real question here is we basically moved from a quarter percent to a half percent of the world's energy from renewable energy. but that quarter to a half percent has happened over the past couple of years. we're on a big step-up, but it's going to be a long process. it will be 20 years but probably within 20 years we're going to have a whole world running on renewable energy. >> from your lips to everybody's ears, i hope that happens. thank you for being with us. >> thank you, ali. >> after the break. how a small radio repair shop grew to be the world leader in consumer electronics and then took a very hard fall. the story of sony and the the stream is uniquely interactive television. in fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns.

>> all these folks are making a whole lot of money. >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> i think you've offended everyone with that kathy. >> hold on, there's some room to offend people, i'm here. >> we have a right to know what's in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. >> so join the conversation and make it your own. >> watch the stream. >> and join the conversation online @ajamstream.

>> our look back tonight takes us to japan right after world war ii. when two men opened an electronics repair shop in a bombed out store in tokyo. they called it tokyo telecommunications corporation. today we know it as sony. sony broke into the american market in the 1950's with its widely successful transitionter radios. from there it grew into a powerhouse with common devices used in every day life. you may not remember the beta maximum set in 1975 but you earth o heard of the sony walk man. it also created floppy disks,

compass disks and branched out to video gaming and it was the verse console to sell over 100 million systems worldwide. it's follow up, playstation 2 is still the most successful home console in history. like any strong technology company sony tried to build on its successes. it got into mobile phones, personal computers and has a footprint with a studio in hollywood as a massive recording label. but with all of these subsets, it may be the blame for the slow painful reorganization that the electronic giant is trying to carry out. it has gone through four restructures. the company suffered net losses of more than $1 billion last year and it says it's expects another $1 billion loss this year. well, it seen some bright spots thanks to its ps 4 game consoles. it will sell off it's pc unit because of poor sells.

sony has been distancing itself from the television sector where it once thrived. no one would think that an industry leader like sony would soon struggle for its survival, but that's how competitive it is. whiland it may be wise for applo pay attention to some of sony's past mistakes. i'm ali velshi, thank you for joining us. >> on real money with ali velshi, a yearlong series, america's vanishing middle class... >> i'm on a mission, that i have to keep this business going... >> three families struggling every day >> we had to pull the whole retirement fund... >> real stories... real people... real advice... >> you need to pay the water bill, if you don't pay it, we're shutting your water off in a half hour >> how will you survive? >> the stakes are so high... >> america's middle class:

rebuilding the dream on real money with ali velshi on al jazeera america >> michelle bachmann accused of a mass -- boko haram accused of a massacre in nigeria, in the same region where they seized more than 200 school girls. hello, welcome to al jazeera - live from our headquarters in dough hoe. also ahead - rebels leave homs after a brutal 2-year siege. rebuffing vladimir putin - ukraine's separatists dismiss the call to postpone a referendum. >>